Shooting Stars: DI Conference Tournament Single-Game Scoring Standards
Do you know the individual boasting highest-scoring game in history in an NCAA Division I conference postseason tournament is a genuine gamebreaker-turned-lawbreaker? You can find him in prison serving a life sentence without parole after facing felony charges stemming from automobile hijacking, kidnapping the driver by holding a gun to his head and robbing a convenience store following a 3 1/2-year stint in prison for a probation violation. Well, it's Marshall guard Skip Henderson, who erupted for 55 points in the 1988 Southern Conference quarterfinals against The Citadel. Marshall (also C-USA) and Texas Tech (Big 12 and SWC) are the only schools to have two players hold existing league tourney scoring marks in two different NCAA Division I alliances.
Three mid-major leagues - America East (twice after three-time MVP Jameel Warney's 18-of-22 field-goal shooting six years ago for Stony Brook), Ivy League (Harvard's Bryce Aiken three years ago) and Horizon League (Detroit's Antoine Davis last year) - provide the only players setting existing NCAA DI conference tournament scoring marks in a tourney final. All-Americans Lennie Rosenbluth (North Carolina) and Cliff Hagan (Kentucky) accounted for the two of following DI league tourney scoring standards (ACC and SEC) standing since the 1950s:
| Conference | Round | Record Holder | School | HG | Opponent | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| America East | Final | Taylor Coppenrath | Vermont | 43 | Maine | 3-13-04 |
| America East | Final | Jameel Warney | Stony Brook | 43 | Vermont | 3-12-16 |
| American Athletic | Semifinal | Russ Smith | Louisville | 42 | Houston | 3-14-14 |
| Atlantic Coast | Quarterfinal | Lennie Rosenbluth | North Carolina | 45 | Clemson | 3-7-57 |
| Atlantic Sun | Quarterfinal | Reggie Gibbs | Houston Baptist | 43 | Georgia Southern | 3-7-89 |
| Atlantic 10 | Quarterfinal | Tom Garrick | Rhode Island | 50 | Rutgers | 3-7-88 |
| Big East | Quarterfinal | Donyell Marshall | Connecticut | 42 | St. John's | 3-11-94 |
| Big Eight | Quarterfinal | Eric Piatkowski | Nebraska | 42 | Oklahoma | 3-11-94 |
| Big Sky | First | Randy Onwuasor | Southern Utah | 43 | Montana State | 3-7-17 |
| Big South | Quarterfinal | Chris Clemons | Campbell | 51 | UNC Asheville | 3-2-17 |
| Big Ten | First | Michael Thompson | Northwestern | 35 | Minnesota | 3-10-11 |
| Big 12 | First | Mike Singletary | Texas Tech | 43 | Texas A&M | 3-11-09 |
| Big West | First | Josh Akognon | Cal State Fullerton | 37 | UC Riverside | 3-11-09 |
| Colonial | Semifinal | Justin Wright-Foreman | Hofstra | 42 | Delaware | 3-11-19 |
| C-USA | Semifinal | Trey Freeman | Old Dominion | 42 | Western Kentucky | 3-11-16 |
| Horizon League | First | Antoine Davis | Detroit | 46 | Robert Morris | 2-25-21 |
| Ivy League | Final | Bryce Aiken | Harvard | 38 | Yale | 3-17-19 |
| Metro Atlantic | Quarterfinal | Kevin Houston | Army | 53 | Fordham | 2-28-87 |
| Mid-American | Semifinal | Ron Harper | Miami (Ohio) | 45 | Ball State | 3-8-85 |
| Mid-Eastern Athletic | First | Richard Toussaint | Bethune-Cookman | 49 | Morgan State | 3-11-03 |
| Missouri Valley | Quarterfinal | Hersey Hawkins | Bradley | 41 | Indiana State | 3-5-88 |
| Mountain West | Semifinal | Jimmer Fredette | Brigham Young | 52 | New Mexico | 3-11-11 |
| Northeast | Quarterfinal | Rahsaan Johnson | Monmouth | 40 | St. Francis (N.Y.) | 3-3-00 |
| Ohio Valley | Quarterfinal | Charles "Bubba" Wells | Austin Peay | 43 | Morehead State | 2-25-97 |
| Pac-12 | Quarterfinal | Klay Thompson | Washington State | 43 | Washington | 3-10-11 |
| Patriot League | Quarterfinal | Joe Knight | Lehigh | 45 | Colgate | 3-4-05 |
| Southeastern | Semifinal | Cliff Hagan | Kentucky | 42 | Tennessee | 3-1-52 |
| Southeastern | Quarterfinal | Melvin Turpin | Kentucky | 42 | Georgia | 3-8-84 |
| Southern | Quarterfinal | James "Skip" Henderson | Marshall | 55 | The Citadel | 3-4-88 |
| Southland | Quarterfinal | Kenneth Lyons | North Texas | 47 | Louisiana Tech | 3-10-83 |
| Southwest | Semifinal | Rick Bullock | Texas Tech | 44 | Arkansas | 3-5-76 |
| Southwestern Athletic | unavailable | unavailable | unavailable | TBD | unavailable | TBD |
| Summit League | Final | Bill Edwards | Wright State | 38 | Illinois-Chicago | 3-8-93 |
| Sun Belt | Quarterfinal | Dee Brown | Jacksonville | 41 | Old Dominion | 3-3-90 |
| West Coast | Quarterfinal | Tim Owens | San Francisco | 45 | Loyola Marymount | 3-2-91 |
| Western Athletic | Quarterfinal | Mike Jones | Texas Christian | 44 | Fresno State | 3-6-97 |
NOTE: Scoring outbursts by Fredette (Mountain West), Garrick (Atlantic 10), Gibbs (Atlantic Sun), Harper (Mid-American), Henderson (Southern), Houston (Metro Atlantic Athletic), Lyons (Southland) and Piatkowski (Big Eight) are also existing school single-game standards. Warney's output is highest for Stony Brook at DI level.